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Revisiting criminal medical negligence resulting in death - S v Van Heerden 2010 1 SACR 529 (ECP)
Cases dealing with criminal medical negligence in South Africa are relatively
rare, and rarer still are those that are reported. It is for this reason
that the reported case under discussion, more than two decades after the
Kramer decision, is of interest. Of particular interest would be a principled assessment
of the judgment, in context of criminal medical negligence with reference
to the crime of culpable homicide. In this case, it is specifically some of the
elements of criminal liability, namely the actus reus (in the form of an omission),
causation and fault that attract academic attention, albeit by way of a deconstruction
of the judgment.